Spotlight & Giveaway: One Hundred Moments Of Us by Jon Rance

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Jon Rance to HJ!

Hi Jon and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, One Hundred Moments Of Us!

Hello! Thank you so much for having me! It’s a pleasure to be here.
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

‘One Hundred Moments Of Us’ is the story of Charlie and Ashley. They first meet when they’re eighteen, and Charlie is completely smitten by her, but Ash is too popular, too cool, and Charlie just isn’t. We follow them over the next few years as a few chance meetings bring them together, and as they begin their lives post-university, we see them gradually falling in love. But love is never easy, and life and London can be hard. Can their love survive the everyday world?

Told through moments big and small, trivial and significant, this is the moving and uplifting story of a relationship – the ups, the downs, and everything in between.
 

Please share your favorite line(s) or quote from this book:

Oh, that’s a hard question! There are many passages from the book I could share, but I think I’ll share these two scenes. The first is one I just really enjoyed writing, and I thought comparing relationships to IKEA furniture was quite funny and erudite. The second is when Charlie and Ash are both sick, in bed, and watching old episodes of Friends together – something we can all relate to, I’m sure.

Before Charlie, all my other attempts at relationships were flat-packed like IKEA furniture. I had to unpack the boxes, go through the little bags for all the pieces, read the instructions carefully then go through them step by step, hoping I wasn’t doing it wrong, and without fail something would and there would be pieces left at the end and you would never know how vital they were. Tightening screws with Allen keys, hoping that when it was done it wouldn’t look completely rubbish. But with Charlie, it was like getting something bespoke and delivered that was perfect right away and you didn’t have to read the instructions because they weren’t needed. It felt solid, reliable and like it wouldn’t fall apart anytime soon.

The episode ended with the group of them at Monica’s apartment, watching an old prom video. Rachel and Monica are going to their prom, but Rachel’s date doesn’t show up and Ross is aiming to be her stand-in. You can see how much Ross adores Rachel, and watching it, I couldn’t help but be reminded of how I had felt for so long around Ash. In fact, when I thought about our relationship dynamics, they weren’t that dissimilar to Ross and Rachel.
‘It’s weird to think of us watching that at fourteen, our whole lives ahead of us, and how everything has turned out,’ I said as the credits rolled.
‘What do you mean?’ replied Ash, taking another sip of her Lemsip.
‘Because at sixth form, I was Ross, and you were my Rachel, the cooler, beautiful girl that was way out of my league.’
Ash turned, looked at me, and said, ‘Do you still see me like that?’
‘Out of my league? The girl I didn’t stand a chance with. Absolutely.’
‘You shouldn’t think of me like that. I have never thought of you as below me on the dating spectrum. You’re my lobster, Charlie, because you’re you.’
She looked at me, and a moment passed between us.
‘I would kiss you now, but you’ve got a bit of snot hanging from your nose,’ I said.
‘And you still think I’m out of your league?’ she said with a giggle.
‘I mean, maybe not right now,’ I said sarcastically, and then Ash blew her nose as the next episode began.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• The original idea was called ‘The Library Of Us’ and was actually about a couple who were breaking up, and they were going through all their possessions and remembering all the moments of them.
• Charlie was always called Charlie, but Ashley (Ash), went through about ten name changes! Sometimes names of characters can be hard to get right!
• The ending also changed about five times and I wrote A LOT of moments that never made it into the final book. That was actually the hardest thing about writing the book was picking the moments.

What first attracts your Hero to the Heroine and vice versa?

Great question! At the beginning of the book, Charlie falls for Ash because she is the most beautiful girl he has ever seen. He’s eighteen, from a small town in southern England, and he didn’t know girls that beautiful actually existed outside of London. Ash first spots Charlie at a nightclub, and is attracted to his red hair and his carefree dancing because he is nothing like her super cool, popular boyfriend.

A year later, and after a chance meeting on holiday in Spain, Ash and Charlie properly meet for the first time, and what Charlie realises is that underneath that beautiful exterior, she’s actually far more like him, more vulnerable and not like the popular girl he imagined. Ash falls for Charlie because, unlike other boys she has dated, he’s sensitive, funny, and he’s genuinely interested in her.

Did any scene have you blushing, crying or laughing while writing it? And Why?

I think all of the above at some point. The book is a real rollercoaster ride of emotions – like any good relationship – and there are moments of comedy and love, but also sadness, anger, and death. I think like any good romance, it unpeels the characters emotions, and we see their flaws revealed as their lives become more complicated, and this, of course, leads to many moments of pathos and also humour. It’s a romance that’s really grounded in reality.

The scene I have chosen below, I think reflects some of that reality of love, after the honeymoon period when life gets in the way, and all we want to do is go back to how things were, but knowing we can’t. To set the scene up, Charlie and Ash have had a big argument, but they are trapped in a car, in traffic, driving home for Christmas.

‘Look,’ I said turning to Ash. ‘I’m sorry, okay. I’m sorry that I work too much, go out too much, and that I’m not ready to be a dad yet. I’m sorry I’m not what you want, Ash, but it’s Christmas and I love you, and I really want us to have some fun together. I want us to jump in the sea again like we did in Brighton and behave like teenagers. I want us to have brilliant, passionate sex again like we used to. I want to enjoy Christmas with my wife because I love Christmas, I fucking love you, and I want to be happy with you again because I feel like we haven’t been happy in a while and I’m tired of not being happy. It’s draining being miserable all the time, Ash. So, please, can we just stop being angry with each other and start being happy again? Chris Rea is singing one of the best Christmas songs ever, and it just feels wrong to be arguing when we’re driving home for Christmas, doesn’t it?’
I had said my piece, and I looked across the car at Ash, and she was smiling.
‘You bloody idiot,’ she said, and then she laughed a little. ‘I don’t think Chris Rea’s Christmas classic has any bearing on whether we’re happy or not, and for your information, Charlie, you are what I want.’
‘Yeah?’
‘Of course. Just perhaps a bit more of the old you who worked less and wasn’t stressed all the time.’
‘Well, it’s Christmas, and we aren’t working, so…?’
‘So?’
‘So, maybe, just for Christmas, we can be like the old us again. Relive the glory years!’
‘Like a once famous rock ‘n’ roll band on one final, roll of the dice, desperation tour to get their careers back on track?’ said Ash, as the traffic started moving ahead of us. ‘Sorry, that was a little dark, wasn’t it?’
‘Perhaps. Although, you know, sometimes those last roll of the dice desperation tours actually work,’ I replied, and suddenly we were off again, picking up speed, the traffic clearing, and Southampton and Christmas were getting closer.

Readers should read this book….

If you enjoy contemporary romance, set in London, and you are fans of ‘One Day’ and the films of Richard Curtis like ‘Notting Hill’ and ‘Love Actually’, I think you’ll have a soft spot for One Hundred Moments Of Us.

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have in the works?

I signed a two-book deal with Hera and so I’m currently working on the second book of that deal. The book is mostly done, and we are just working on final edits. It will be out in the Spring of 2025, which is very exciting. It’s another romance, although very different from One Hundred Moments Of Us.
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: A copy of ONE HUNDRED MOMENTS OF US by Jon Rance

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: When you look back on your current relationship, or a previous one, can you think of the most important moments and how they shaped you?

 
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Excerpt from One Hundred Moments Of Us:

No. 1
Charlie

The girl in the refectory
The first time I saw her was in the sixth form refectory. I was between classes and waiting for friends when I looked up from my book and there she was – the most achingly beautiful girl I had ever seen. I hadn’t known girls that attractive actually existed. I had seen models in magazines, actresses on the silver screen, and I imagined that in the bright lights of London there might be girls as incredible as that, but not in Southampton, casually standing twenty feet away from me. I tightened up and could feel every nerve ending, bone and muscle in my body. I was aware of the air between us as if it was a physical entity.
She had just walked in and was looking around, probably for someone she knew, or perhaps she was waiting for someone. She had long, straight, dark hair and was tall and slim in a way that suggested good genes rather than unhealthy fad diets. She had the most incredible face with dazzling green eyes and dimples on her pale cheeks. I was seventeen years old and hadn’t ever felt that overcome with lust before. I had been attracted to other girls, and I had even kissed one, but they were ordinary in comparison. This girl was a dream I didn’t even know I had, and all I wanted to think about for the foreseeable future.
For a ridiculous moment, I thought about walking up to her and saying hello. Was that even possible? Did people do such things? I couldn’t just approach her and start quoting Shakespeare, could I? Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? No, you definitely couldn’t compare her to a summer’s day! She would laugh in your stupid face. I could barely feel my feet, and even if I had the courage to walk up to her, what would I even say? What could you say to someone as perfect as that without just dying on the spot?
I watched her as secretively as I could from behind my well-thumbed paperback. What sort of person would keep her waiting? If she were my girlfriend, I would make a point of being early to everything. She looked at a silver watch on her perfectly formed left wrist, and then casually gazed around the room. She was wearing a pair of faded blue jeans and a white shirt, which she had half untucked, as though it were a passing thought. On her feet, she had a pair of blue Adidas Gazelle trainers, and I wanted to rush out and buy the same pair just so I would know what it was like to wear that pair of shoes. To somehow, rather pathetically, feel closer to her.
It was October, the first term at sixth form, and I couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen her before. We must have been studying wildly different subjects and therefore been on completely different schedules to be so far removed from each other. Time seemed to slow down as I watched her, hoping she might catch my eye for a split second. Just her knowing I was alive would be enough but imagine talking to her and hearing her actual voice. It was all so fucking unbearable, like walking a tightrope over the Grand Canyon.
I was trying to imagine how she might speak, the way she might laugh, and how her eyes would sparkle when she did. I thought she would have a posher accent than mine. I had no basis for this theory other than she looked better than me and her skin glowed with a freshness that mine didn’t. At seventeen, I had a few spots, a greasy forehead and then, of course, the red hair. Flame red! A proper ginger. I had been called names all my life, and the endless jokes about my pubic hair being the same colour. Does the rug match the curtains, Talbot?
Finally, after about five minutes of her standing there and me covertly spying on her, I made a decision. I stood up! I was going to walk up to her and introduce myself. I had to grab this moment because this felt like one of those tipping points. This was my Everest!
I pushed my chair back, my whole body alive in a way it had never felt before. A sudden silence filled the refectory, and I took a step forward at the exact moment she smiled the most wonderful smile I had ever seen, and then strode forwards until she was face to face with a boy I instantly recognised as Scott Laird. They stood in front of each other, then he kissed those ruby-red lips, and a piece of my heart broke off and fell through my body, probably lost forever in my intestines. I was crushed in a way I hadn’t even realised it was possible to be.
Scott Laird was the best-looking boy in the year and by far the coolest. He wore the trendiest clothes, had the perfect haircut, and was aloof to the likes of me because he only existed to a particular group of people. Scott Laird had an aura about him, knew about nightclubs in London, and somehow managed to always look like he was about to appear on the front cover of a magazine. Scott sang in a band and drove a pristine Volkswagen Beetle. I didn’t stand a chance.
They stood together for a moment, and then they walked off, hand in hand, the perfect couple. Bright young things! Everest was left unconquered, and as far away as the actual Everest. I sat back down in my chair, slumped in my seat, daydreaming about her, and that one day I might get to be with someone like that.
It wasn’t until days later I found out her name was Ash.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Book Info:

They say life is made up of moments.

So is a relationship.

From the moment he sets his eyes on Ashley Oliver at sixth form on the cusp of the new millennium, Charlie falls in love. It isn’t all sunshine and roses though and it takes several years and more than one chance meeting before they begin their relationship.

Will they survive everything the world has to throw at them or will the pressure of life, love, and London be too much for them?

Told through moments big and small, trivial and significant, this is the moving and uplifting story of a relationship – the ups, the downs, and everything in between.

An unforgettable romance, perfect for fans of Sophie Cousens, Jill Mansell and Mike Gayle.
Book Links: Amazon | B&N |  kobo |
 
 

Meet the Author:

JON RANCE writes novels about love, family, relationships, and all the messy bits in between. His novels have been described as hilarious, romantic, and perfect for fans of Mike Gayle and Beth O’Leary. His first two books, This Thirtysomething Life and Happy Endings, were published by Hodder and Stoughton. Since then, he has written numerous novels including, Sunday Dinners, Dan And Nat Got Married, and The Worst Man. Jon signed a two-book deal with Hera Books and his latest novel, One Hundred Moments Of Us, will be published in the summer of 2024.

Jon grew up in England and studied English Literature at Middlesex University, London, before travelling the world and meeting his American wife in Australia. He now lives in California with his wife, two kids, and a dog called Pickle, where he writes full-time and drinks far too much tea.
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